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Divisione Motorizzata “Trieste” – before and after CRUSADER

In a previous post linked here, I have added information comparing Italian divisional strength after the CRUSADER battle, comparing it to the authorised strengths of the division. I recently received Salvatore Loi’s book Aggredisci e Vincerai, the history of the Trieste division. Most of it is focussed on 1942/43, but there is some good information about the division’s role in CRUSADER in there. Here I want to use this information to show what the impact of the losses was, by showing the structural change of the division following the battle.

But first a bit of background on the division. It arrived on the big liner convoys in August and September, and suffered 450 killed when Gritti, Oceania and Neptunia were sunk. Loi states that the CO of IX Gruppo of 21 Artigliera died when the latter two were sunk by HMS Upholder. Montanari, the official Italian historian of the war in North Africa, puts the division was around Homs in early September. On 25 October small elements of the division already undertook recce towards Segnali and Mechili. On 8 November the division was in the sector Bir Hakeim-Bel Harmat-Mteifel el Chebir. There is an interesting diary entry at this link from a subaltern in 66 Reggimento Fanteria. The officer writing the diary was posted missing after CRUSADER, he is in the 66 Fanteria casualty list in Loi.

Based on the information in the earlier post, I am presuming Trieste lost about 4,000 men. It is the nature of losses in battle that they fall largely on the infantry, meaning that while the division as a whole may ‘only’ have lost 22%, the effect at the sharp end is likely to be far more pronounced, and this is shown when looking at the structural change of the division after the battle. In the case of the Trieste division, it started the battle with 7 infantry battalions and 4 battalions of AA/AT (armi di accompagnamento), and ended it with 6 infantry battalions and 0 AA/AT battalions, a 45% drop in frontline strength. Furthermore, the two infantry regiments went from three companies of 81mm mortars to one per regiment, severely reducing their firepower. The regiment most involved in the fighting, the 9th Bersaglieri lost two battalions, one infantry and its AA/AT battalion. In the process of the battle, the two infantry regiments lost their regimental mixed AT/AA battalions (my guess is that the guys in these battalions were used to make up numbers in the remaining two infantry battalions), and the divisional AT/AA battalion was also dissolved to provide reinforcements at the end of January.

OOB 101st Motorised Infantry Division Trieste September 1941

Staff

65th Infantry Regiment

2x infantry battalion

1x AA/AT battalion

Motorised transport column

66th Infantry Regiment (as 65th)

9th Bersaglieri Motorcycle Regiment

3x Bersaglieri battalion

1x Bersaglieri AA/AT battalion*

Medical Section

508th AA/AT Battalion (undergoing re-establishment – the battalion may have been disorganised because of losses suffered in transit)

*According to a contemporary source provided by Michele, the “Battaglione di armi anticarro e di accompagnamento” (=”antitank weapons and support weapons batalion”) in theory had a contingent of about 600 men, and consisted of:

I know that the names come from the places where the regiments constituting the divisions were first established in the second half of the 19th century (and in some cases, e.g. Granatieri di Sardegna even older, going back to the mid-17th century, to the Guards Regiment of the King of Sardinia.

But unfortunately I have no idea if this territorial link still existed when WW2 came around.

On top of that, I also have no idea if the Bersaglieri and the armoured troops of the Ariete division had a specific regional link. I don’t think so, but that’s not worth much.

About the Project

The aim of this blog is to accompany the preparation of a complete history incorporating the Axis and Commonwealth perspectives of the Winterschlacht (Winter Battle) in North Africa, November 1941 to February 1942. The battle was known as "Operation Crusader" to the British, the 2nd (British) Offensive to the Italians, and as the 'Winterschlacht' (winter battle) to the Germans. The start date is universally agreed to be 17 November 1941, while the end date is 15 January for the British (thus excluding the Axis counter-offensive of late January), while it is 6 February for the Axis, including the counteroffensive.